


I was scared of dentists and the dark

by raine_go_away



Category: 5 Seconds of Summer (Band), One Direction (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Ashton is probs 18 idk, Fluff, Haikus, Luke is probably 16 since he's a sophomore, Luke writes haikus about Ashton, M/M, Poetry, i dont have emotions so angst is hard for me to identify, i guess, idk - Freeform, lack of capitalization bc luke does what he wants, semi-angst, swimmer!Luke, teacher's assistant!Ashton
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-29
Updated: 2014-07-29
Packaged: 2018-02-11 00:16:21
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,288
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2045682
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/raine_go_away/pseuds/raine_go_away
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ever since he was little, Luke wrote poems about things he likes -- haikus, specifically. And Luke knows he likes the teacher's assistant from his chemistry class. He knows it because there are little haikus about him all over his notes.</p><p> </p><p>--or the one where Luke writes haikus about Ashton, and one day, Ashton hears one.</p>
            </blockquote>





	I was scared of dentists and the dark

**Author's Note:**

> Just a shameless excuse to work on haikus and write Lashton fluff for a friend oBvIoUsLy
> 
> This is my first full length fic, wow??? And my first post on this website, so please be nice, oh god, I'm scared, don't hurt me.
> 
> find me at cringingcalum.tumblr.com

If you asked Luke’s mother, she would describe her son as a creature of habit. He liked things consistent, she would say, and if he decided he enjoyed something enough, he would repeat it and repeat it. Never would he get bored with whatever that thing was, his heart would just grow fonder until it became a part of him that was just was involuntary as breathing.

That’s where the haikus came from. Luke had to be seven, cheeks extra round from baby fat that had yet to wear off, and bright blue eyes that gleamed with innocence. One day their teacher told them to write a simple haiku, described it to them, and they worked on that all day.

Luke’s went something like this:

_i think i like whales_

_and the way the sun shines bright_

_across the ocean_

Luke only got a two out of five on the assignment, Miss Parker was nice about it though. She sighed and reminded him that he needed to capitalize his I’s and put periods at the end of the sentences. However, it didn’t matter, Luke was already scrawling some more haikus across the top of his paper, counting the syllables on his fingers in a hushed voice.

Miss Parker helped him with his haikus too, considering he wrote them all over every paper he ever turned in. Eventually he got pretty good at them, he didn’t even need to count the syllables anymore, but he still didn’t capitalize his I’s.

\--

_look over at me_

_take a moment and see me_

_just notice me please_

The words seemed to appear on the top of Luke’s chemistry notes effortlessly as he had his teeth nestled in his lip, another one of his habits too old to break. Honestly he was grateful his little haikus were easy to hide during class. He wasn’t obvious about the distraction that faced him across the classroom like Calum was as he played 2048 in the back row.

One time Calum actually threw his phone across the classroom, and Mr. Harris just sighed like he was expecting it.

No, when Luke wrote his haikus it just looked like he was writing notes and not staring at the senior -- his name was Ashton, Mr. Harris called him Ashton -- sitting at the front table grading papers during his free period. He wasn’t obvious, at least he didn’t think he was.

He may not be obvious about his habit, but he was definitely oblivious to everything around him when all of a sudden everyone was pushing out their chairs and the bell was ringing throughout the room.

Hell, he even jumped when someone slammed their backpack down on the table next to him. He actually had to take a moment and hold his heart before looking up at Calum who was staring intently at his phone again.

“Mikey sent me a snapchat video of the turtles in biology fucking supposedly, but the damn thing won’t load,” he spat angrily, tapping at his phone aggressively, probably trying to load the said video.

“Mr. Hood, can you please watch your language in my classroom?”

The two of them snapped their head around to see Mr. Harris staring at them with a deadpanned look on his face. Then Luke caught sight of Ashton giving them a peculiar look as he handed a pile of homework to their teacher. Just seeing the other boy standing there in a black singlet and skinny jeans that hugged his thighs just the right way made Luke pink in the face, and he hoped Ashton didn’t notice him dragging his eyes up and down his frame slowly.

“Sorry, Mr. Harris!” Luke squeaked and scrambled to get all his papers shoved into his binder and into his backpack, mainly to get Calum away from the teacher who already hated him... and possibly to avoid having to tear his eyes away from Ashton.

He was too focused on trying to get all his materials into his backpack to notice a single sheet of paper hit the floor to be scooped up by his dark haired friend who looked upon it with curious eyes.

“Hey, Lukey, what’s this?” Calum asked, shimmying his hips slightly as he tried to shove his phone into front pocket of his jeans single handedly.

“Huh?” was all Luke managed to get out as he glanced up at his friend while he zipped up his backpack. He squinted for a moment, trying to place the paper and shrugged, “Just something from my notes, I guess,” he decided in a mumble, pulling on his backpack and heading for the door. He waved a quick goodbye to Mr. Harris as he paused to pick up some of his graded papers from the very table Ashton worked at every single day.

“Shit, Luke, you write poetry?” Calum’s eyes were blown wide as Luke blinked in confusion, glancing up at his friend who seemed completely enamoured by the sheet of paper in his hands.

“Uh,” Luke began, ready to tell Calum to just wait when the other boy began reading.

“I do not need much,  just your hand in mine is good, I can promise this,” Calum recited out carefully, his voice practically going up and down with each syllable to just showcase the pure beauty that Luke admired of haikus. But he didn’t want this to be happening, not here, anyway. And he was thankful that the one on that paper was vague.

His shoulders were slumping with relaxation as the pair headed for the door of the classroom, Calum right on his heels.

“That was really pretty,” another voice added in, and Luke practically jumped out of his skin, and actually hit his head on the metal door from walking straight into it.

“What?” he stammered, eyes wide as he glanced back to see Ashton walking towards him. Oh god, straight towards him. His eyes were glinting green in the light today, and there was a bandana pushing up his caramel colored curls that Luke undoubtedly had pages and pages of haikus written about.

Haikus just about how the would feel in between his fingers, or brushing up against the back of his neck when in a quiet embrace, or laced with sweat in something more heated and less innocent.

“I said it was pretty,” and there was the laughter that Luke had compared to bells a countless number of times on his papers. Just the happy jingle of bells that made his heart lighter with each laugh.

“These are really good,” Calum added with a small nod, eyes focused on the paper as he read another one out, “ Ashton, are your hands soft? I just want them in my own, forever to hold.”

And that’s when everything came tumbling down because Calum’s eyes widened as he began to mouth ‘oh shit’ and Ashton’s face went blank and he stopped walking. Luke felt like he was going to pass out, his head was spinning, and he felt like he couldn’t breathe. He had his mouth open, voice ready to apologize when Ashton spoke up, “Luke, you’re blocking the door.”

Oh god, he was so obviously uncomfortable, and Luke hated himself for ever taking up a love for the dumb poetry. He ducked his head down and mumbled out a sorry, stepping backwards to get out of the way only to stumble backwards over another desk behind him.

Ashton pushed his way past though, eyes stony and built high with a barrier of emotion that Luke couldn’t read, and that was it. Never in his life had Luke wanted the floor to swallow him up so badly until now.

The silence was broken only by Mr. Harris clearing his throat by saying, “Well, that was awkward.”

And for probably the first time, Calum agreed with his teacher when he said, “I think history has been made in your class, Mr. Harris.”

Then, this time, Calum wordlessly slung his arm around Luke’s shoulders and dragged him out of the room and out to their usual spot for lunch.

\--

“Will someone please tell me why Ashton Irwin keeps looking over here with an expression that looks like he wants to die?” Mikey groaned out from the lower branches of a tree on the school’s campus.

The three always met at this tree for lunch. Calum would lay on his back in the grass, Luke would crouch with his notebook against his knees and back against the tree, and Mikey would be actually in the tree even though school administrators have told him countless times he couldn’t sit there. Honestly, they all gave up with the wildly colored hair boy after the first year.

“I sort of confessed Luke’s love for him earlier today in chemistry,” Calum explained in an amused voice as he threw his tanned forearm over his eyes.

“Shit, really?” And Mikey jumped down from his perch to grab Luke by the shoulders and practically shake him, getting Luke’s eyes to widen, obviously startled.

“Yes, leave me alone, I’m sulking, god,” Luke mumbled under his breath, leaning in closer near his notebook to hide what he was writing. Then of course, Mikey just snatched it away, pacing back and forth on the grass.

“So you write poems every time you’re scrawling away in this thing?” And Luke’s cheeks flushed darkly as he nodded sheepishly, because it just sounded so bad every time one of his friends pointed that out to him.

Then Mikey just kept reading them aloud, and Luke squeezed his eyes shut and tried to hide his face in his hands to hide all the embarrassment written all over his face.

_come throw rocks at my_

_window at the dead of night_

_and help make time stop_

_-_

_you are like coffee_

_on a cold sunday morning_

_that i just breathe in_

_-_

_today, your hand just_

_grazed mine and i swear, i couldn't_

_breathe with you right there_

_-_

_whenever the sun_

_doesn't come out to shine bright_

_it's fine, i have you_

_-_

_i'm nothing to you_

_and that's okay, i swear it_

_you're my everything_

_-_

_laughter like bells that_

_ring from the church tower, and_

_a smile just as bright_

_-_

_maybe you can be_

_the cure for the ache in my heart_

_but don't break me_

“Mikey, can I please have it back?” And Luke winced at the crack in his voice, not sure if it was just from emotion or puberty hating him. But Michael paused, looking over at his younger friend and back at the paper.

“These are good, have you ever considered writing songs?”

Luke stammered at that, and the three of them just launched into a discussion about what fi they made a band, the trio of them. To say he was grateful for the new conversation was an understatement, he just needed a distraction from the haikus that seemingly ruined his chances with an older boy.

Suddenly, a new voice broke into the conversation.

“Luke?”

And he turned his attention from his two friends to meet hazel eyes that belonged to none other than Ashton. His own widened quickly, his body stiffening, expecting the worst. Even Ashton’s two friends were there, a sort of curvy brunette and his hipster boyfriend that made Luke look like an average height.

“Yes?” he stammered, swallowing nervously, and suddenly Ashton wore this sort of smile that brought butterflies into Luke’s stomach and it was contageious, because before he knew it, he was smiling too.

“You dropped this in Mr. Harris’ classroom,” and Ashton presented Luke with a piece of paper, “I went back before, um.. before now, I guess? I left something there, and he said that you left this too and that I should give it to you in case I saw you,” the older boy rambled on, almost nervously.

Luke’s eyes glanced at the paper before he took it back tentatively and offered Ashton another little smile, “Thank you,” his voice laced with fondness and watched as a sort of flush spread on Ashton’s neck, earning a bit of muffled laughter from the shorter one of his friends.

Soon, Ashton sent him a death glare to shut him up, and with a quiet goodbye, he practically bolted away, his friends in tow.

“Hey, Lukey?”

“Yeah, Cal?”

“I think he likes you too.”

“Who would like _Luke_?”

“Oh my god, shut _up_ , Mikey.”

\--

Disappointingly, Luke doesn’t have any classes with Ashton the rest of the day, which, makes sense considering they were in different grade levels, but for some reason he got hopeful every time he walked into his next class, hoping to see the other boy just grading papers for whatever teacher was there.

\--

The school day ended, and Luke still didn’t see Ashton anywhere, and he just figured that maybe he’ll see him tomorrow in chemistry again, and maybe they can talk. Maybe things would lead to numbers being exchanged and Luke could have a date, just maybe.

Ashton was the only thing on Luke’s mind the entire time he was at swim practice, just going back and forth in the pool and thinking about hazel eyes and bright smiles. He ended up staying in the pool longer than necessary, just liking the way that when he was in the water that everything faded away.

He got out of the water an hour late, and covered the pools since he ended up being the only one there. Then he just sauntered off to the locker room, his mind fresh and clear for once and the ache in his muscles simply comforting.

The locker room was thankfully empty, and he just quietly sang random Paramore songs under his breath as he shed his swim suit to go rinse off in the hot showers, maybe taking a bit longer than necessary, but he was distracted by singing loudly to Young Volcanoes with the hot water pounding against his back.

Hey, empty locker rooms were a godsend.

Once he figured he wasted enough water, he left the showers, finding his locker to grab his towel and tie it around his waist while he found everything he needed to change into.

Then there was a touch on his shoulder.

And Luke pretty much shrieked, almost slipping on the concrete floors underneath his bare feet, his towel slipping off his hips from him accidentally stepping on it. When he realized he was naked, his eyes went wide and held the towel over his body almost in a defending way, turning to see who his attacker was.

He had to squint, having taken his contacts out before he got in the pool just in case he lost them, and eventually he made out the sight of Ashton. Then, he felt his cheeks heat up immediately, “Oh,” he squeaked, tightening the towel around his body, and Ashton had this look of awe on his face, humor dancing in his eyes as he smiled slightly.

“Sorry I scared you, just.. uh, your friends said I could find you here,” he explained sheepishly and Luke slowly nodded, taking everything well.

“You nearly gave me a heart attack,” Luke let out a bit of a forced laugh, trying to get himself to relax as he turned towards his locker to eventually remove the towel from his hips, thankful his back was to Ashton as he shamelessly gave his hair a tossel and dried his torso off.

“I, uh.. sorry about that, I guess,” Ashton’s voice sounded a bit choked and Luke glanced over his shoulder to give him a funny look.

“Oh! I meant it teasingly like.. like a joke,” and he winced at that, oh god, he sounded terrible and he wanted to tear his hair out as he pulled his shirt over his head. He made the transition into his underwear pretty quickly, jumping into his skinny jeans right then and there in front of Ashton.

That’s when he realized that Ashton hadn’t said anything in a couple of minutes, so Luke looked up worriedly... only to find the other boy’s eyes practically glued to his hips as he struggled to shimmy into the tight, black skinny jeans. That’s when Luke was absolutely positive his cheeks were scarlet, his hand going to the back of his neck shyly.

Quickly, he sat down on the bench in front of his locker and began to put on his socks and shoes. With his eyes distracted by the feat of tying his shoes, he just began rambling.

“Um, Ashton, I was wondering if maybe you’d like to go on a date with me sometime..? Like, it doesn’t have to be much, I uh.. I like the movies, How to Train Your Dragon 2 is still playing in theaters, I like the Lego movie better, but I think you would like it,” and he got up to grab his backpack out of the locker.

“Luke, I --”

Luke slammed his locker shut, and just kept rambling, backpack on his shoulder now. “I mean, you don’t have to. Like, why would you want to? Oh my god, I’m just a kid in that chemistry class you TA for, and I write weird creepy poems about you. And I’m younger! Why would you, Ashton Irwin, want to go on a date with some sophomore?”

Luke then ran his hand through his hair frustratedly, “I’m nothing special, I’ve seen the girls and guys in your grade, wait. Shit -- are you even gay? Oh my god, are you just here to let me down easy and teach you how to write haikus for whoever you like?”

That’s when he started scaring himself more and more.

“I mean, I would teach you if you like.. But only if you give me a couple of days to cry over rejection and mope, and probably sulk. But I’d help you in the end, and if you’d like --”

He was cut off when he looked up finally to see Ashton standing impossibly close to him, their noses practically brushing when Luke looked up. And that was enough to shut him up and stare into Ashton’s eyes. There was something warm in the hazel color, some kind of emotion that had Luke’s stomach turning nervously, or maybe excitedly, he couldn’t tell.

“Luke, I’d love to go to the cinema with you,” Ashton spoke finally, a small smile on his lips and Luke felt a weird combination of emotions explode inside him. He couldn’t exactly identify them, but one of them had him take a step backwards, shock probably, and actually hit his head on his head on an open locker, causing him to curse.

“Shit, Luke, you alright?” came a worried voice. Ashton Irwin was worried about him, Luke Hemmings. And something about that made Luke’s heart feel like it was expanding with happiness.

“Yeah, yeah, I’m fine, great actually,” and he bit on his lip, giving Ashton a shy look who just grinned right back at him. Ashton had his mouth open, about to say something, but Luke beat him to it.

“But are you sure? Are you just saying this to let me down easy, because I completely understand if you don’t want to go --”

“Luke?”

“.. Yeah?”

“Shut up, please,” and Ashton got all close to him again and Luke found himself swallowing a bit uneasily.

“I just don’t want you doing this out of pity --”

“Jesus fuck, I told you to shut up,” and then there was a warm mouth against Luke’s preventing him from saying anything else. He was startled at first, eyes wide, but he quickly relaxed into it, because this was better than anything he had ever hoped.

_your lips against mine_

_calm every uneasy sea_

_inside of my mind_

**Author's Note:**

> oh my god you made it to the end  
> leave me kudos and comments to make me happy please!
> 
> find me at cringingcalum.tumblr.com


End file.
